I spent four years as Forbes' Girl Friday, which to me meant doing a little bit of everything at once. As a member of the Forbes Entrepreneurs team, I looked at booming business and startup life with a female gaze. I worked on the PowerWomen Wealth and Celebrity 100 lists, keeping my ears pricked and pen poised for current event stories--from political sex scandals to celebrity gossip to international affairs. In 2012 I helped to put two South American women on the cover of FORBES Magazine: Modern Family star Sofia Vergara (the top-earning actress on U.S. television) and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is transforming the BRIC nation into an entrepreneurial powerhouse. Prior to Forbes I was at the Philadelphia CityPaper, where I learned more than any girl ever needs to know about the city's seedier trades. I studied digital journalism at The University of The Arts.
I left Forbes in November, 2013, to pursue other interests on the West Coast.

Are Cell Phone Jammers The Next Big Thing?

A Philadelphia man was caught red handed this week for using a cell phone jammer to keep his fellow passengers on a public transit bus from using their cell phones.

“I guess I’m taking the law into my own hands,” he told a reporter from NBC10 about the illegal jammer, “and quite frankly, I’m proud of it.”

Teresa Masterson, a writer at NBC10, first encountered the jammer on her morning commute and tipped off NBC Investigators. She told the blog Philebrity:

While riding the bus, my cell phone signal suddenly went out, which is not normal, and continued to search for a signal for 15 minutes. After a little while, I noticed that everyone else on the bus on his/her cell was having the same problem. Then, I see this guy (pictured at right). He’s openly holding something that looks like a walkie talkie with four antennae in his hand the whole time. Anytime someone would try their cell again, this guy would subtly turn in their direction, press a button and point it at them, then continue reading his book under his creepy hood… I’m pretty sure it was one of those devices that cuts off signals; Jennifer Lopez used one in Enough, so that’s all the scientific analysis I need.

It should go without saying that such a device is illegal. A jammer, which blocks radio frequencies, isn’t just limited to blocking personal cell phone use, but all communication tools that use these frequencies. What does this mean? Essentially that the jammer that lessens the din of personal conversations on your M-14 bus also has the potential to cut off communication between the driver and dispatch centers or public agencies, which could result in a public safety snafu—or disaster. Jammers also block incoming calls, which means that if used for an extended period you prevent anyone in your vicinity from hearing pressing, even emergency, news.

But while today’s news and ensuing outrage online is all over a single man, the practice of jamming cell phones is actually much more commonplace on the rails in both New York and Washington DC. I spoke to two such “jammers” this morning on what led them to buy devices, which range from $40 to more than $10,000 on websites like Jammerall.com. Some boast radiuses of as little as 15 feet while others claim they’re used on military vehicles and for anti-terrorism maneuvers.

“They’re the best thing ever,” says one New Jersey to New York daily commuter who carries a jammer on his 40-minute New Jersey Transit ride each morning. He doesn’t keep it on for the entire ride, he says, just when a fellow passenger talks “too loud” or “too long.” “It fits in your pocket – they even make shady ones that look like packs of cigarettes. I’d guess it’s effective for about a 15 ft radius, possibly more,” he says.

“When I’ve used it, it’s to cut off a loud talker on the train that’s sitting near me.” He says he bought it online from a website that imports the devices from China, where they’re legal and, when asked, told me he’s never felt guilty for keeping his fellow rail riders from conversations. “No guilt,” he says, “Just personal high fives.”

“I always have a grace period with phone calls,” says another jammer who rides the MARC train into Washington DC,roughly 30-minute ride. “Like if someone is saying ‘Okay, well, I’ll be in the office in 10 minutes we can discuss it then,’ I won’t jam them. But if you are talking about what you did last night and what kind of curtains to get for the house, then yes. Silenced.”

Does he feel guilty? Like he’s causing a public disservice? Not so much. “People get super pissed off and bitch about their phones all the time. But I feel it gives me some control against what I believe is becoming an increasingly inconsiderate society.”

“I am not a threat to public safety,” he says. “I am not putting anyone in danger more than anyone on a subway every morning with no cell reception is in danger.”

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So censorship is one of your heros ?? I know people are loud using their cell phones but it is not their right to take away free speech no matter loud it may be.

It is the right of the driver to ask the rider to please talk lower and if this does not work call the Seattle Police Department who will gladly drag you off the public transit vehicle and proceed to…….

My dad was killed by a lady using her cell phone the lady only got a $200.00 fine and only a mistaminer here in Santa Monica CA. no manslater

Check out this if you wish Video: about my Dad The wife of Hollywood producer Howard Gordon — who created Homeland and 24 — pled no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and will not serve time in jail. http://www.ktla.com/videogallery/67957759/News/VIDEO:-No-Jail-Time-for-Wife-of-Hollywood-Producer-in-Vehicular-Manslaughter-Case—David-Begnaud-reports

If I ever see someone using one of these around me I will go out of my way to talk as loudly as I possibly can right in their ear, even if it’s talking to myself.

Most people don’t even talk on their phones, but I might have important texts or emails to send, so the jammers are just as inconsiderate as the loud phone talkers, in fact even more so because they are truly disturbing other folks business.

If you have a problem with somebody talking too loud, just say “Excuse me, but would you mind keeping your voice down a bit? It’s kind of disturbing the peace.” I guarantee 90% of the population will comply with that simple request and most will even say “sorry”. If you are too anti-social to do something as simple as that, you need more help than a jammer.

I’ve heard of such devices and researched them, but never have seen the effects of one in action to prove that they indeed are for real. Although there are no subways in S. FL, there’s definitely no shortage of people using cell phones while driving. You want to drive recklessly AND carry on a conversation while holding the device, well take THIS! {call disconnected} They would be my primary targets! ;-)

It’s all about the amount of negative exposure such a topic receives. If a public official or one of his/her loved ones were killed or severely injured as a direct result of someone being distracted by their cell phone activity, then MAYBE constructive judicial action would follow. Replace the public official with a commoner and the status quo remains preserved.

Circumstances must reach an extreme before somebody decides to strike back. I’m not implying going to war. However, millions of people daily operate weapons of mass destruction…their vehicles. In my neck of the woods, I’m very surprised that there aren’t a plethora of intentional collisions daily as a result of people being fed up with reckless drivers. Folks just don’t realize how abusive their actions are and that at any moment a car could plow right into them.